The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to navigate through a user interface on a display and to manipulate user interface objects on a display.
But existing methods for navigating between user interface screens are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, navigating from one user interface screen to another through a sequence of intermediate user interface screens is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.